Champions Paris Saint-Germain won their final game of the season 2-0 at Metz, who will play in the relegation play-offs for the chance to remain in Ligue 1.
This match was effectively over as a contest after 12 minutes when, five minutes after Carlos Soler’s inswinging cross crept inside Alexandre Oukidja’s far post, Lee Kang-in slotted home Marco Asensio’s low cross.
Initially the Korean forward was adjudged offside but VAR ruled he was slightly behind the last defender.
The result here looked in jeopardy, though the scoreline was threatened when Nordi Mukiele hit the bar in the first half and Metz’s Lamine Camara did the same from a miss-hit cross at the other end.
Metz began the 90 minutes in the play-off berth – which plays off with the third, fourth and fifth sides in Ligue 2 for the final Ligue 1 spot – but Lorient’s 5-0 victory over bottom-club Clermont Foot put them perilously close to leapfrogging the Stade Saint-Symphorien outfit.
For most of the night, Metz were happy with the score staying the same until news of Lorient’s fifth goal, which brought their scores level on goal difference.
This put into play a series of tie breakers, the fifth of which was goals scored in matches between the sides – and Metz won 3-2 at Lorient, while Lorient won 2-1 at Metz.
The prospect of Metz going down automatically did not seem too worrying a prospect at the start of play.
With no Kylian Mbappe, no Warren Zaïre Emery, no Ousmane Dembele the likelihood of a seven-goal difference between them and Lorient being breached seemed marginal at best.
But we perhaps over estimated the motivation of already-relegated bottom-club Clermont Foot, who travelled to Lorient and were 4-0 down just after the hour mark.
This led to the strange sight of a goalkeeper with his side 2-0 down, in this instance Metz’s Alexandre Oukidja, doing all he could to legally time waste, keeping the ball at his feet until the already sated PSG forwards closed him down.
Lorient’s 91st minute goal levelled the teams on points and goal difference. The next tie breaker is head-to-head record, then goal difference in head-to-head record and then away goals in head-to-head match ups – the latter giving Metz the advantage.
